My 1st life in lesson knowing what I stand for.

And willingly paid the price for it.

My 1st life’s lesson in knowing what I stand for, and then willingly pay for it.

Reflecting on my school days, I remember one teacher I simply couldn’t respect enough to join the class in greeting him with the usual “Good morning, teacher.”

“Candice Lim! Stand for the rest of class!” And so, every day for 50 minutes, I stood.

After class, a classmate asked, “Why not just say good morning? It’s only three seconds.”
“Because I can’t greet someone I don’t respect,” I replied, fully aware of the cost.
“You’d rather be embarrassed by the punishment?”
“Yep!”
“……………………….”.

🙃 Silly?
🧐 Principled?
Depends on who you ask.

While I could not respect the teacher for some reasons, I was not upset with his punishment. I chose to withstand that embarrassment that came with the punishment, because I knew that was the price to pay for choosing to hold on to my principle that greetings were meant to be a sincere and voluntary act. Not a conformance to some rules.

Now, with many more years (and insights), I see how principles can be expressed maturely, without compromise.
Not the compromise as my Classmate suggested.
Not the way I did it too, but an appropriate, and respectful expression of it.

✴️Stay true to yourself, but express the ‘you’ with maturity.

✴️ Every decision has a price – know it, and own it.

✴️Being principled does not mean non-negotiables. We can still work things out with others on a win-win basis without having to compromise our principles.